When it comes to birthday cake, we don't mess around. In our health-conscious times, there aren't many opportunities to whip out a five-layer old-fashioned cake, but we really feel that birthdays should be one of them. The more layers the better! Here are a dozen inspiring birthday cake recipes that we think would light up any birthday table - whether the honoree is 9 or 90.

I am actually baking a birthday cake for a young friend this weekend, and it's going to be a surprise - it won't look anything like these lovely cakes. (If all goes well I'll post it here next week.) But if he hadn't made a special request, one of these towering cakes would be on the table.

I'll leave cupcakes for some other time. For now, here are birthday cakes to make someone's day special.

• 1Ruffle Tower Cake - Such a pretty cake. This technique is a great one for people just learning how to use a decorator bag, too; just cover the cake in one sort of ruffles. You can adapt it to any number of recipes, too.

• 6Bee's Dot Cake - This sweet dot cake was made by Brooke, a former art director at Martha Stewart. This cake is extremely easy to copy, though; she gives instructions on making the dots out of icing.

• 7Deep Dark Chocolate Cake - With raspberry filling and chocolate frosting. For chocolate and fruit lovers, this very rich and grownup cake will satisfy a big crowd. A little goes a long way.

You Might Also Like

Promoted Stories

Categories

Faith is the executive editor of The Kitchn and the author of three cookbooks. They include The Kitchn Cookbook, coauthored with Sara Kate Gillingham, as well as Bakeless Sweets. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband Mike.